


Amid the Stars

by WorryinglyInnocent



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Stargate Universe
Genre: F/M, NSFW, PWP, Professor/College Student, Smut, and some serious talk about feelings, rushacey, sex in a planetarium
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-10
Updated: 2017-06-10
Packaged: 2018-11-12 12:13:19
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11161608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WorryinglyInnocent/pseuds/WorryinglyInnocent
Summary: After a college field trip, Rush finds Lacey in the closed planetarium. Joining her for a drink against his better judgement, he learns just why she has always been his most intriguing and most wilfully irritating student, and is forced to confront his own feelings for her in the process...Naturally, things progress from there.





	Amid the Stars

He should have known, really. From the moment that Lacey French expressed a desire to come on the field trip, Rush should have known that she was planning something. He had, in a moment of madness, thought that perhaps she was turning over some kind of a new leaf and was showing an actual interest in her chosen field of study for once, but now that they were here, he was being proved spectacularly wrong.

Rush sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. The science museum was hosting a guest speaker giving a lecture on a new theory of the formation of the universe. He had already decided to go when the dean had encouraged him to take a small number of his best and brightest students with him since the content would be essential to their coursework. Although spending an evening in the company of some of his students was not at all Rush’s idea of a good time, he had nonetheless reasoned that as long as he was select about whom he allowed to attend, there shouldn’t be much trouble.

That was when he had made his first mistake - Lacey had asked to come and he had, against all better judgement and every single bone in his body screaming at him not to do it, agreed.

Lacey was not a stupid girl. Far from it, she was probably one of the most intelligent people on the course, but she showed an infuriating lack of application, turning in half-assed work at the last minute and just coasting along, doing as much as she needed to get by. It was the thing that annoyed him the most about her, the fact that he knew all the knowledge was there and he knew that she understood everything, he just couldn’t make her _care_. She was always ready with a reply when he called on her in class, even though she lolled in her seat looking as if she was about to fall asleep half the time, and it was clear that she absorbed information like a veritable sponge. He’d given up trying to catch her off guard in class and had taken to just ignoring her instead, and in her turn, she had started ignoring him. He couldn’t understand why she was so determined to frustrate him, but then again, maybe it wasn’t just him. Maybe she was like this in all her classes. Perhaps he ought to find out who her other professors were and talk to them about her strange attitude.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose as he rounded the corner from the museum’s empty lecture theatre, wondering why he was even bothering. She was a grown adult, he wasn’t responsible for what she decided to get up to, either in or out of his classes. Something about her, though, made him want to find her. She’d dutifully been as good as gold during the presentation, although she had started painting her nails halfway through. Still, she hadn’t been disruptive and she’d seemed to be taking everything in. Rush hadn’t thought too much of it at the time, but he had noticed the little glances that she kept sending his way when she thought that his attention was focussed on the speaker. They’d been checking up on each other all evening, and then Lacey had vanished.

The other students had all long since left and gone home, but here he was, stalking around the empty museum searching for the one who had gone missing. At least most of the exhibition halls were locked up and closed off now that the museum was officially closed, so it wasn’t as if he had a lot of places to look.

He should just walk away and go home. There was nothing stopping him from doing so and ruining whatever little plan that Lacey had for him. But the fact remained that in spite of just how ridiculously infuriating she could be, Lacey French remained an enigma that his analytical mind was determined to get to the bottom of.

“Looking for me, Prof?”

Lacey was peering around one of the doors off the main exhibition hall, a cheeky little grin on her face. It was the door that led to the huge planetarium, and Rush raised an eyebrow because that door should really have been locked.

“How did you get in there?”

Lacey winked, wiggling her fingers. “Magic powers, Prof.” She nodded into the room. “Come on. I’ve got something for you.”

She ducked back into the room out of sight.

Rush sighed. He shouldn’t. He shouldn’t encourage her like this. He shouldn’t find her so intriguing and he definitely shouldn’t find her so attractive.

He pushed open the door to the planetarium. Lacey was sitting on the lowest level of bench seating, her knees drawn up to her chest as she gazed up at the display of stars and planets twinkling above her. Most of the lights were switched off for the night, but some were on, giving the entire place an eerie glow. There was a six pack of beer by her feet, one of the cans in her hand. She saw him standing in the doorway and smiled, nudging the beer with one strappy stiletto-clad foot.

“Want one? A reward for putting up with me perhaps. You’ve earned it.”

Rush shook his head as he came over. “I’m not much of a beer drinker.”

“Go on, one won’t hurt. It’s not like you’re driving, I know you only live round the corner.”

He settled himself on the bench beside her, following her gaze up towards the solar system above them.

“How did you get in here?” he asked. “And how did you smuggle the booze in?”

Lacey laughed. “I know one of the security guards, Leroy. I bribed him with another pack of beers if he’d unlock the planetarium for me.”

Rush took one of the cans from the pack and popped it open, taking a sip.

“Why are you in here, Lacey?” he asked eventually.

Lacey shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.” She gave a short bark of laughter. “Story of my life, that. Seemed like a good idea at the time.” Her bravado had dropped, just for a moment, and in her current position, hugging her knees, Rush saw a brief flicker of something more behind the irrepressible facade of _Lacey_ that she always seemed to wear. There was something vulnerable in her, something clawing to get out, desperate for affection and validation. Then the mask slipped back into place and she returned her gaze to him, smirking a little.

“I don’t have to ask why you’re in here, Prof, though, do I? You’re in here because I’m in here.”

Well, there was no denying that, and Rush just raised his beer to her.

They drank in silence for a few moments, occasionally glancing up at the lights above them.

“Do you like me, Prof?” Lacey asked eventually.

The question caught him off guard, and Rush had no idea how to answer it. He had never really thought about it in terms that blunt before. He thought about her a lot, and she annoyed him a lot, and he pondered her motivations a lot. But the simple fact of liking her or not liking her… That had never crossed his mind.

“I find you incredibly frustrating,” he said eventually.

“You’re stalling,” Lacey pointed out. “But hey, I’ll play along. Why do you find me incredibly frustrating?”

“Because I know you can do better, and I can’t understand why you don’t. You’ve got a lot of potential, Lacey. I don’t understand why you don’t embrace it.”

Lacey scoffed. “Potential, huh.”

“Yes. And that’s why it’s so infuriating when you act out.”

There was a long silence.

“And why do you think I do that, Prof?” Lacey said eventually. She chugged down the remainder of her beer and crumpled the can in her fist, tossing it towards the trash can in the corner of the planetarium.

Rush spread his hands. “I honestly have no idea. It’s something I’ve been wondering myself for a long time.”

Lacey have a long sigh, shaking her head. The dim light from above caught her long dangling earrings, making them sparkle as she moved.

“You know, for someone as incredibly intelligent as you are when it comes to physics, you’re absolutely shit when it comes to people.”

“It’s been remarked upon before,” Rush said dryly, taking another sip from his can. What was he doing? He was sitting in a closed science museum drinking with one of his most interesting, if annoying, students, and now they were discussing his character flaws.

“Do you like me, Prof?” Lacey asked again.

There was a vulnerability in her eyes, and Rush nodded.

“Yes, I do. You’re very smart, when you put your mind to it, and you always give as good as you get. I don’t like the fact that you don’t care about anything. But I do like you.”

“I don’t care about anything?” Lacey slipped her legs off the bench, her posture straightening in her indignation. “It might have escaped your notice since the only thing in the world that’s important to you is science, but there’s more to life than physics. God, you’re an asshole.”

“Yes, that’s also been remarked upon before,” Rush agreed. Lacey raised an eyebrow.

“Well, I do have to appreciate your honesty. That’s refreshing, at least. It’s not that I don’t care.”

“You just have better things to do with your time?” Rush suggested sourly. Lacey shot him a filthy look.

“Yes, as a matter of fact,” she snapped. “Drinking till four in the morning takes up a lot of my time, since you ask.”

He’d touched a nerve, although he wasn’t sure how and why it had made her feathers ruffle. But that mask was slipping, the vulnerable young woman hiding behind Lacey’s confidence was peeping out, begging to be released.

“I never mentioned drinking till four in the morning,” Rush said levelly. “But since you mention it, that does seem to be what we’re doing tonight.”

“Yeah, well, alcohol makes everything easier, doesn’t it? Lowers your inhibitions, makes you speak your mind.”

“You always speak your mind, with or without the aid of alcohol.”

“Oh, shut up, you’re not making this any easier,” Lacey grumbled, running a hand through her mess of hairspray-glued curls.

“What am I not making any easier?”

“I’m trying to talk to you, you idiot!” Lacey looked as if she was about to throw the rest of the six-pack at him. “I knew you were dense when it came to the full spectrum of human emotion but I didn’t know you were that thick. You really don’t get it, do you?”

“Call me an idiot and dense all you like, Lacey, but I’m still in the dark as to what I’m supposed to be getting.”

Lacey gave an exclamation of frustration and launched herself forward on the bench, grabbing his shoulders and pressing her lips against his. Her kiss was fierce and bruising; a challenge, a fight, just like everything else in their interactions, and she was breathless when she finally pulled away.

Rush had no idea how to react. Well, a certain traitorous part of him was reacting very eagerly and telling him just how good it would be to kiss her back, to put his hands on her thighs and lay her back down on this bench right here…

She was searching his eyes, looking for something that she evidently didn’t find, for she slid back along the bench, getting to her feet and grabbing the beer where she’d knocked it to the floor.

“Well, that was an utter waste of time,” she muttered. “At least I know that you actually are a robot.”

She took a step towards the exit, but Rush caught her free hand, stopping her.

“Lacey, wait.”

He had no idea what he was doing, but he knew that he had to do something. The atmosphere in the darkened planetarium was practically buzzing with sharp electricity.

She turned back to him, lifting her chin up and trying to repair the shattered mask of her don’t care attitude that had fallen down around her in that moment of impulsiveness when she kissed him.

“Lacey, please help me to understand.” The pieces of the puzzle that was her entire existence were slipping into place. “Have you really been doing everything you’ve been doing just for my attention?”

Lacey sat back down on the bench heavily, shaking her head.

“No. Well, perhaps at first. But you never rose to it, and by that time, it was just expected behaviour, wasn’t it? I can’t suddenly change what I’ve been doing for the last three years.”

“I thought you had,” Rush admitted. “When you came along to this lecture tonight, I thought you were turning over a new leaf and taking an interest in academia again.”

“And you liked that?”

“I was absolutely ecstatic.”

Lacey shook her head. “Wouldn’t you find it boring, not fighting against me all the time?”

“As refreshing as it is to spar with you, it is also exhausting to be at loggerheads all the time. Contrary to popular belief, I don’t enjoy conflict. I just don’t shy away from it when it occurs.”

There was a heavy, pregnant pause before Lacey spoke. “Wouldn’t you find _me_ boring?”

“Lacey, I don’t think anything about you could ever be boring.” He paused. “Do you find me boring?”

Lacey shook her head. “I just kissed you. I think that means I find you the opposite of boring.”

“Then why do you think I would find you boring if you actually focussed on your work?”

Lacey shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just… not me.”

“I’m not suggesting you become a nun, just that you apply yourself a little more.”

Lacey laughed at his suggestion and it was good to see the mirth lighting up her hurt eyes again.

“I’d be a terrible nun,” she said. “I’d be there for a decade confessing all my sins.”

Rush quirked an eyebrow and she stuck her tongue out at him.

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” she quipped, before beginning to count off on her fingers. “Smoking too much, drinking too much, doing too much weed, too much public debauchery…”

“I do remember hearing about the time you and your roommate decided to streak the varsity football match.”

“That wasn’t the first time. Won’t be the last, either.” Lacey continued to count, her voice singsong. “Too many intimate piercings…” Rush’s eyebrows shot to his hairline and Lacey winked at him. “Too many impure thoughts about my physics professor… Too much time spent touching myself to said impure thoughts about my physics professor.”

Rush spluttered. “Really?”

Lacey raised an eyebrow. “I just threw myself at you and kissed you, and you’re doubting the impure thoughts and masturbation?”

“Fair enough.”

There was a long silence between them, Lacey’s bottom lip bit between her teeth, and Rush sighed. He shouldn’t be doing this. He was her professor for God’s sake, he shouldn’t even be thinking this, but just like Lacey, he was never really one for following the rules and doing what he was supposed to. She was a grown adult and perfectly capable of making her own decisions; she wasn’t a schoolgirl with a crush.

She was certainly beautiful, that had never been in any doubt in his mind, and she was so layered, so bright in her own way despite how downright maddening she could be. Maddening because she didn’t know any other way to be, because she was desperate for some kind of validation from him but going about it the wrong way. The right way… Oh, he didn’t know. All he knew was what he wanted, and that he shouldn’t want it, and that he really didn’t care.

“Please say something, Prof,” she said presently. “You’re damn near impossible to read and I’m beginning to think you’ve been abducted by aliens. What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking that for all your irritating traits, you’re bloody wonderful and I’d very much like to kiss you, because despite what you think I’m not exactly a stickler for the rules myself.”

Lacey gave a huff of laughter. “From the amount of cigarette butts stubbed out below the ‘no smoking’ sign in your office, Prof, I would never have guessed.”

“Nick.”

“Pardon?”

“Nick. If we’re going to do this, call me Nick. I want you because you’re you, Lacey, not because you’re my student. Do you want your professor or the damn train wreck he is under the title?”

Lacey looked at him. Her blue eyes seemed almost ethereal in the eerie light from the solar system display above them.

“Can I have both?”

Rush snorted and gave a little sigh. “Yeah, you can have both.”

Lacey took his beer from him, draining what was left of it and holding the can up in a toast. “To two trainwrecks on a collision course amid the stars.”

Rush raised his eyebrows.

“That was incredibly poetic.”

“Ugh, don’t tell anyone, you’ll ruin my reputation.” Lacey tossed the empty can at the trash where it landed on the floor alongside her own. “Besides.” She looked up at the planets glowing above them. “It’s almost true.”

This was it then, Rush thought. The moment of truth and the point of no return. He inched a little closer to Lacey on the bench and took the plunge, cupping her face and pressing his lips against hers. It was an awkward kiss, not like the fierce one that she’d planted on him earlier, but then Lacey’s hands were coming around his neck and sweeping down over his shoulders, and her mouth was firm and insistent against his. He dropped his hands to her waist, and before he knew it, one her hers was grabbing his fingers and rearranging them on her bare thigh where her tiny skirt had ridden up.

“I want you,” she breathed against his lips when she finally released him. “I think that’s part of why I wind you up so much. You’re so damn sexy when you’re angry. Well, you’re sexy all the time, but you’re _especially_ sexy when you’re angry.”

Rush dug his fingers into her thigh involuntarily as she began to undo the top couple of buttons of his shirt.

“Lacey, we’re in a museum.”

“We’re in a closed museum,” Lacey pointed out, continuing to undo his shirt and using the two halves to pull him in for another kiss. Good god, going along with this was probably one of the worst ideas Rush had ever had, but he really couldn’t bring himself to care, not when Lacey’s tongue was sweeping over his teeth and her hands were stroking his chest, and his hands were inching up under the hem of her skirt. She was a hot, bright mess of a person, vulnerable and self-conscious and covering it up so well with her sheer Lacey-ness, but then he was a mess himself, and this entire thing was going to be a mess, but right now, it was what they both wanted. Perhaps he’d been denying it for too long. You only lived once, after all.

Lacey broke away, wrestling his shirt off his shoulders and scraping her nails over his exposed skin, scratching at his nipples and making him groan. Not to be outdone, he slipped his hands under the hem of her own top, pushing it up so that he could cup her breasts through her bra, her nipples already pert and pebbling beneath the sheer black fabric. Impatient, Lacey pulled the top off altogether and made quick work of the bra, pressing her naked breasts more firmly into Rush’s hands. He flicked at the rosy tips before bending to kiss each one in turn, and he felt her hands card into his hair, nails scraping at his scalp as she grunted with pleasure at his touch before she tugged on his hair, pulling him up away from her chest so that she could steal another kiss. She dragged her lips down over his chin and neck, sucking hard on his pulse point, and Rush pulled away.

“Are you trying to give me a hickie?”

Lacey gave an innocent little smile, tracing her fingers down his chest again to his belt buckle.

“I think it would be a talking point for all your classes tomorrow. And it would be a nice little keepsake from this evening. To remember me by.”

Rush was under no illusions that he’d be remembering this particular encounter for a long time to come. He slipped his arms around Lacey’s back, enjoying the little squeal of surprise she gave as he pulled her onto his lap before kissing her again, working his way back down to her breasts and tugging at her nipples with his teeth. The noises she was making were truly delicious, and the way she was wriggling on top of him made his semi-hard cock surge into life, pressing urgently against his zipper, trying to get closer to her warm centre through their layers of clothing. Lacey could feel him, that was obvious from the way she continued to grind her hips into his, rubbing up against his cock. He let her nipple slip from his mouth and looked up at her.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded eagerly. “Never been more sure about anything in my life, Prof.”

Well, that made one of them. Rush was sure that he wanted her, that wasn’t under question. He wasn’t sure that this was a good idea, but god, he definitely wanted her and since they’d got this far, he definitely wanted to go through with it.

Lacey’s hands found his belt again, unfastening it deftly and opening the fly of his jeans, slipping a hand inside to cup his heavy crotch, palming his erection with firm little strokes. Rush pushed up the hem of her skirt and slid a hand between her thighs, finding the gusset of her panties already soaking wet with the slippery proof of her desire. She was panting now, her breasts bouncing as she writhed on top of him, and he stroked her through the stained lace, making her moan and increase the pressure of her hand against his cock.

“Fuck,” she groaned. “Fuck, that’s good.”

She pulled her hand out of his jeans and raised herself up off his lap a little, pushing him down flat against the bench and pushing his jeans and boxers down his legs, not bothering to wrestle them off altogether, and then she was back straddling him, her mouth hungry and her tongue probing and insistent as she slanted her lips over his again. Her wet panties were gliding over his cock and God, he was aching to be inside her. He slipped a hand up under her skirt and found the waistband of her underwear, tugging at it. Luckily, Lacey was just as desperate to be touched as he was and she slipped off him, quickly shedding her miniskirt and the skimpy black thong. Rush’s eyes widened as he saw her fully bare, her soft pink sex hairless and glittering with a hint of metal.

“You weren’t kidding about the intimate piercing,” he said.

“I never kid, Prof. Want a closer look?”

She lifted her leg and rested her foot delicately on the tier of seating above them, slipping her fingers into her cleft to open up her most private place and show him the metal decorating her hood. He reached out to touch it, pressing the ball carefully against her clit, and she shuddered with pleasure before slipping her foot back down and settling herself back on top of him, bracing her hands against his chest. Rush slipped fingers down to her core, sliding easily into her welcoming folds and rubbing circles around her clit, mindful of the piercing.

“Oh Nick,” she groaned, her hips quivering. “God, I’ve wanted this since Astrophysics 101.”

Rush’s response was to push a finger up inside her clutching entrance, feeling her so hot and wet around him. Her channel was so lush and tight and he only hoped he could hold out long enough to feel it around his cock.

It had probably not been since the first lecture that he had been attracted to her and had tried to squash the thoughts of touching her like this, but she had certainly been intriguing and had held his attention since the first time that they met. She was so unlike anyone he had taught before, and he had known at once that she was going to be trouble. He just didn’t know what kind.

“Are you close, Lacey?” he asked, pressing his thumb against her clit. She nodded, her mouth opening and closing but no words coming out, and with another flick of his thumb against her pearl, she threw her head back with a loud and unapologetic moan, her breasts heaving and the sheen of perspiration glowing on her skin beneath the planetarium’s lights. Could there be a more perfect setting for them than here beneath the cosmos that had first brought them together.

Panting, Lacey looked down at him with a sated, orgasmic grin, taking his hard length in her small fist and pumping him.

“It’s your turn, Prof.”

Rush shook his head. He wanted nothing more than to be buried balls deep inside her but there was a slight problem.

“No condom.”

Lacey rolled her eyes and reached down under the bench seat, grabbing her purse and rummaging through it until she came up triumphant with a foil packet, tearing it open and rolling the rubber onto him before giving him a final stroke and lifting herself up on her knees, to line them up.

She was heaven; hot and lush and everything he could have dreamed of, and as she began to move on him, riding his cock with a fast, unforgiving pace, Rush bit his lip, trying to make the moment last as long as he could. It had been so long, even longer since he’d had company that wasn’t his own hand and a dirty movie, and he couldn’t stop himself thrusting up to meet her with every stroke.

“Lacey, I can’t stop, I’m going to come.”

She smirked down at him. “Then come, Prof.”

It was the best orgasm that he’d had in years, and for several seconds after he spilled himself, all he could do was wonder in dazed disbelief if the past couple of minutes had actually just happened.

Then Lacey was holding the base of the condom and was moving off him, and then she was collapsing down onto his chest, sprawling over him. He could feel her self-satisfied smile against his skin, and once he’d got rid of the condom he wrapped his arms around her.

“Fucking’s better than fighting, don’t you think, Prof?” she asked, her face buried into his collar.

“Yes, it is.”

They were going to have to move soon, they couldn’t stay here all night and despite Lacey’s friendship with one of the security guards, someone was probably going to find them and the same someone was probably not going to be too happy to see them in such an interesting position. But Rush really couldn’t bring himself to care, just as he couldn’t bring himself to care about the inevitable mess that this thing between them was going to turn into.

Well, something in the back of his mind told him. It didn’t _have_ to be a mess. Just because both he and Lacey were messy people with a cargo hold of baggage between them didn’t mean that their… relationship, he supposed it was now, had to be messy as well. He stroked a loose strand of damp hair out of Lacey’s face.

“So are you going to start handing in better papers now?”

“I don’t know. Are you going to give me some more mindblowing orgasms as a reward for them?”

“If it gets you to write better papers, I think I might be willing to impart some orgasms. Whether or not they’re mindblowing will have to remain in the eye of the beholder.”

“Well, right now my eyes are beholding a sexy professor who I think would look better in a comfortable bed than on a pretty hard bench.”

“Aye, I’d agree with you there.”

She slipped off him with visible reluctance and they began to put their clothes back on. She was still an enigma, some kind of mystery that he wanted to unwrap the layers of and work out just who she was exactly under it all. Now, perhaps, he would have the chance to do just that.

 


End file.
